Wealth Gap in India: Causes, Effects and Solutions

This article discusses the causes, effects and solutions of wealth gap in India. It highlights the impact of illiteracy, technology, and government policies on the wealth gap. It also provides insights into the historical background of poverty in India.

Running head: WEALTH GAP IN INDIA
WEALTH GAP IN INDIA
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1WEALTH GAP IN INDIA
In the developing countries, distribution of the unequal wealth is the common problem.
Many socio-economic issues arise because of the critical gap between the rich and poor people.
Financial difference not only disturbs the survival capacity of the individuals but also impedes
the inclusive economic growth of a country. Poor people tend to become gradually poorer and
rich people tend to be richer day by day. The world is currently witnessing excessive amount of
wealth gap created by men themselves that is leading to create survival problems for the half of
the world.
Firstly, Illiteracy is the main cause of the inequality between the masses. The wealth gap
has also led to create difference among rich and poor in having high quality of knowledge. There
is a list of schools and universities that are expensive hence these are out of the reach of the
common people. Because of this, poor societies are unable of competing with great paying jobs,
and it creates a central problem for them. Poor people even cannot fulfill the daily needs such as
food, house and clothes. For instance, an individual is paid according to his education level.
Moreover, a person’s education level is directly proportional to the skill level. Therefore, the
person with tertiary education exhibits more advanced skills that in turn lead to a higher pay
scale. In developed countries and urban areas. The impact of education can be still seen.
Although there are policies like free education in these countries, education levels are different
owing to factors that include intelligence, internal drive to learn and personal ability access.
Another significant reason is an escalation of misconduct rates. As pointed out by Cressey
(2017), downgraded people cannot create sufficient money to encounter their simple needs, they
choose disgusting acts such as robbery or stealing.
Secondly, advancement in technology enlarges the earnings gap. As stated by Peters
(2017), people are more jobless than in the ancient times owing to the involvement of machines

2WEALTH GAP IN INDIA
in industrial areas. Average paying jobs for common man in India within the monthly income is
500 to 15000 rupees whereas official jobs fetch around 300 to 400 thousand which are not
available to common man. Poor people even cannot get the high standard jobs because in an
interview they asked for their family background excepting their talents. No one cares about their
talents. Companies see their benefits by looking at the candidate they are hiring for some
financial support if they need in the future. Moreover, they access the social status of the person
as well, if they have a reference for any powerful person, they consider you for the job.
Otherwise, they say no to you straight away. However, skilled labor workers are less affected by
mechanization as compared to unskilled workers. This may be the fact because the skilled labor
force is in demand to operate computers and machinery. Nevertheless, a magnificent method to
investigate the ways of life of the opulent and deprived stand to focus on the profession of the
people in the ancient India. Since the country is an agriculture-based country, most of the people
here are dependent upon this profession. The historical data of poverty in India reveals that the
wealth gap in the society has deep and effective past. In the 18th century, this gap also increased
as the country was gradually engulfed by the British and other European colonizers. Over this
particular period the exploitation by the colonizers was directed aimed to the farmer community
and the weavers as these were the main objects on which the Europeans used to trade. The gap of
wealth increased as the rich or providential princes used to exploit their common subjects to
submit tax returns to the British governor which resulted in the great famine. In addition to this,
the country was indirectly associated with the World wars that browbeaten the lower section of
the country. After the partition, the mass movement affect the wealth balance of India greatly.
Poverty is a global issue against which India has been continuously fighting. It has
become one of the fastest growing economies of the world but a large number of people lives

3WEALTH GAP IN INDIA
below poverty level without having the wealth for meeting daily basic needs. As mentioned
before, poverty directly connects to the literacy. As reviled by Borgenproject.org (2018), literacy
is extremely uncommon in rural areas in India where 35.7% population has no idea of reading
and writing. The survey also reveals that more than 80 per cent of Indian poor population resides
in the rural region with lower income as well as lower amount of facilities like safe drinking
water, food and electricity. To many of the critics like (Birthal, Roy and Negi (2015), the reason
of poverty in India directly connects it with the fast-growing population and resulting in
unemployment. This deeply affects the poor section of the society as the labor supply is higher
than needed. This ultimately results in the low wage labors and low quality of life.
According to (Tilak, 2018), the extreme weather condition due to pollution and other
human activities, the agricultural lands and season are being affected. This is causing harm to the
production of the crops which is ultimately increasing hunger ratio for the country. India due to
climate change has been witnessing highest number of mass suicide of the farmers in the
Maharashtra region which ultimately proved the country to be known for having poorest people
and inactivity of the government to reduce this (Langham & Parry, 2017). To Borgenproject.org
(2018), nearabout 30 percent of India’s population survive on less than $2 per day.
Reduction of poverty can be attained through various ways. Other than being that the two
classes would need to live in the life of the other, they both have numerous more similarities that
relates to their point of view. There are differences of outlook. The poor people and rich
acknowledge their priorities. Though the poor people do not have wealth to me their basic needs,
the feel satiated and they acknowledge what they have to feel proud. They focus on the spiritual
upliftment but the rich people are more focused on the materialistic view of the world. They
want to earn more and more so that they can just purchase what they want. They are extremely

4WEALTH GAP IN INDIA
biased, privileged individuals, for the most part seen as having more instruction, ethics,
trustworthiness and respectability than the lower classes; bring down class social orders are for
the most part anticipated that would have more social issues, for example, adolescent pregnancy,
child abuse, joblessness and separation from the families due to lower income. The lifecycle of
these two ends of the society is completely different. Therefore, it is unlikely to get a close view
of a pamper one with a denied one, and each level will probably be about people who are in their
conditions. This is the reason why it has been cleared that despite there are some natural causes
of increasing wealth gap in this world, but most of them are created by the human beings
themselves. For this, opulent are getting benefitted for long and exploiting the weak.
The importance of government in reducing wealth gap is worth discussing. It ought to
improve plans and provide studentships that will assist individuals from the deprived section
meet the expense of quality education and higher standard of life. This will contribute them a fair
opportunity to strive with affluent people. Reservation in the education sector for the low-class
community can be a solution to eradicate this issue. The government of India, for instance, has
familiarized many arrangements to authorize assistance to the weaker section of the society.
Government subsidies allotted for common people for the welfare of society, however, do not
reach to them because of the government officials. They keep their big cuts, and ultimately
nothing leads to the common man. India has seen as a country with one billion people therefore,
India should be seen as a country with one billion minds.
Therefore, it can be concluded that both the reach and the poor have wealth gap, different
literacy, habits, standard of life and outlook, they are not comfortable with their present situation
and feel discriminated seeing the situation of the individuals around them. Each of these two
sections has their own perception. The deprived cannot create a gap in the sphere but the

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declaration everybody has a determination in the world to challenge their situation and uplift
themselves can change the condition. The deprived are more inclined to the religiosity of life and
consider wealth to be unworthy to satisfy rather make people egoistic and proud. On the
contrary, the affluent class caret their own environment and distinguish themselves from the
lower income section. This ultimately leads to origin of class and increase the wealth gap among
them. this is one of the most important reason why bridging this gap is quite impossible as both
of these classes do not possess uniting mentality.
References:
Cressey, D. R. (2017). The poverty of theory in corporate crime research. In Advances in
criminological theory (pp. 31-56). Routledge. Retrieved from
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351317559/chapters/10.4324%2F9781351317566-3
Birthal, P. S., Roy, D., & Negi, D. S. (2015). Assessing the impact of crop diversification on
farm poverty in India. World Development, 72, 70-92. Retrieved from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X15000480
Langham, R., & Parry, J. (2017). Reconceiving the Impact of Population Change: A Class and
Gender-based Analysis of Ageing in Poverty in Urban South India. In Persistence of Poverty in
India (pp. 113-140). Routledge. Retrieved from
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351378079/chapters/10.4324%2F9781315146973-
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Tilak, J. B. (2018). Education poverty in India. In Education and Development in India (pp. 87-
162). Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. Retrieved from
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-13-0250-3_3
Borgenproject.org. (2018). A Need for Change: Top 10 Facts About Poverty in India. Retrieved
from https://borgenproject.org/top-10-facts-about-poverty-in-india/
Peters, M. A. (2017). Technological unemployment: Educating for the fourth industrial
revolution. Retrieved from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00131857.2016.1177412